1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector with a lever used to reduce the force required for a male-female connection between a device connector and a power connector thereby to double-lock both connectors and, more particularly, to a connector having a short-circuiting mechanism incorporated in the device connector for keeping the parallel terminals accommodated therein short-circuited, in which such short-circuit is released by operation of the lever.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The inspection and maintenance work or wiring work of an electric circuit connected to an air bag or the like of the automobile should be carried out without actuating the air bag or the like. When the connectors on the power side and the device side are not engaged with each other, conventionally, terminals of a connector housing on the side of the device connected to the air bag are short-circuited via a short-circuiting member so as not to allow an induced current by the external magnetic field or electric field to flow to the device, thereby to prevent an erroneous operation of the air bag. The short-circuit is relieved when the connector on the device side is connected with the connector on the power side.
In this kind of connector incorporating a short-circuiting function as referred to above, a short-circuit releasing member is provided in the power side connector so as to move the above short-circuiting member to a releasing position when the connectors are engaged with each other.
Meanwhile, a lever-type connector has been recently offered to easily engage multi-terminal connectors (including, for example, more-than twenty terminals), because a relatively small force is enough to couple the connectors due to the leverage.
A lever is rotatably mounted to one of the male and female connectors of the lever-type connector via a supporting shaft. When the lever is turned, the other connector is forcibly moved in a direction to be engaged with the one connector. More specifically, while the male and female connectors are temporarily locked, a guide pin projecting from the other connector is inserted into a guide groove of the lever positioned at a predetermined position to the one connector. Then, as the lever is turned in the above state, the other connector is moved into a fitting hole of the one connector, and thus the male and female connectors are coupled with each other.
The U-shaped lever before the connectors are engaged with each other is generally located at such position that the operating part at the central coupling section of the lever is turned above the connectors while a supporting point in the axial direction at either side of the lever works as a fulcrum. A positioning means such as a spring or the like is additionally provided to keep the lever at that location.
As described hereinabove, in the connector incorporating a short-circuiting mechanism, it is necessary to provide the short-circuit releasing member on the power side connector and moreover, constitute the short-circuiting member on the device side connector in an engageable construction with the short-circuit releasing member. Therefore, both connectors become complicated in structure, causing a serious limitation in the degree of freedom of the design.
Since the lever generally projects from the connectors at the specific position before the engagement of the connectors, the storage, transfer or the like of the lever demands considerable space. Moreover, it is most likely at a narrow place, etc. that the lever may be brought in touch with the other different parts and erroneously turned before the connectors are engaged with each other.
If the lever is not turned without the male and female connectors being locked at a specific temporary engaging position, it is not possible to perfectly couple the connectors by the lever. However, the temporary engaging state may sometimes be difficult to confirm by eye depending on the setting position of the connectors. In general, the prior art connector system is not so adapted as to judge with a sense of moderation when the connectors are located at the temporary engaging position. Therefore, the lever may be inadvertently turned although the connectors are not temporarily locked with each other, thus necessitating the re-engagement of the connectors and lowering the fitting efficiency.
Further, since it is yet possible to turn the lever to the real engaging position-even if the connectors are not correctly temporarily locked with each other, and it cannot be easily detected when the engagement of the connectors is not effected, for example, when the engagement is missed although the connectors are moved to the real engaging position, it may be erroneously so judged only through the manipulation of the lever, particularly in the case where the lever is moved a small distance, that the perfect engagement of the connectors is completed.
Moreover, if the assisting lever is to be mounted in the above connector, an additional arrangement to change the connector in the lever type is needed and the connector is consequently furthermore complicated in structure.
Particularly, according to the lever-type connector, it is impossible to engage the mating connectors unless the lever is held at a specific position. If the lever is out of the specific position due to some reason during the storage, transfer or assembly, the connectors cannot be coupled to one another.